The individual state Paul desired to be realised among the
Ephesians

Now the apostle was in prison for the testimony which he had
borne to this truth, for having maintained and preached the
privileges that God had granted to the Gentiles, and in particular
that of forming by faith, together with the believing Jews, one
body united to Christ. In his exhortation he makes use of this
fact as a touching motive. Now the first thing that he looked for
on the part of his beloved children in the faith, as befitting this
unity and as a means of maintaining it in practice, was the spirit
of humility and meekness, forbearance with one another in
love. This is the individual state which he desired to be realised
among the Ephesians. It is the true fruit of nearness to God, and
of the possession of privileges; if they are enjoyed in His
presence.

The result of Christ's work; the Christians "vocation"; its
development and application

At the end of Ephesians 2 the apostle had unfolded the result of
the work of Christ in uniting the Jew and the Gentile, in making
peace, and in thus forming the dwelling-place of God on the earth;
Jew and Gentile having access to God by one Spirit through the
mediation of Christ, both being reconciled to God in one body. To
have access to God; to be the dwelling-place of God through His
presence by the Holy Ghost; to be one body reconciled to God such
is the vocation of Christians. Ephesians 3 had developed this in
its whole extent. The apostle applies it in Ephesians 4.

The triple exhortation; the unity of the Spirit maintained in
the bond of peace

The faithful were to seek in the dispositions mentioned above to
maintain this unity of the Spirit by the bond of peace. There are
three things in this exhortation: first, to walk worthy of their
calling; second, the spirit in which they were to do so; third,
diligence in maintaining the unity of the Spirit by the bond of
peace. It is important to observe, that this unity of the Spirit is
not similarity of sentiment, but the oneness of the members of the
body of Christ established by the Holy Ghost, maintained
practically by a walk according to the Spirit of grace. It is
evident that the diligence required for the maintenance of the
unity of the Spirit relates to the earth and to the manifestation
of this unity on the earth.

The three spheres of unity

The apostle now founds his exhortation on the different points
of view under which this unity may be considered in connection with
the Holy Ghost, with the Lord, and with God.

There is one body and one Spirit; not merely an effect produced
in the heart of individuals, in order that they might mutually
understand each other, but one body. The hope was one, of which
this Spirit was the source and the power. This is the essential,
real, and abiding unity.

There is also one Lord. With Him was connected "one faith" and
"one baptism." This is the public profession and recognition of
Christ as Lord. Compare the address in 1 Corinthians.

Finally there is one God and Father of all, who is above all,
and through all, and in us all.

What mighty bonds of unity! The Spirit of God, the lordship of
Christ, the universal ubiquity of God, even the Father, all tend to
bring into unity those connected with each as a divine centre. All
the religious relationships of the soul, all the points by which we
are in contact with God, agree to form all believers into one in
this world, in such a manner that no man can be a Christian without
being one with all those who are so. We cannot exercise faith, nor
enjoy hope, nor express christian life in any form whatever,
without having the same faith and the same hope as the rest,
without giving expression to that which exists in the rest. Only we
are called on to maintain it practically.

The enlarged extent of each circle of unity; essential and real
unity and outward profession, with the Father's universal claims
and rights

We may remark, that the three spheres of unity presented in
these three verses have not the same extent. The circle of unity
enlarges each time. With the Spirit we find linked the unity of the
body, the essential and real unity produced by the power of the
Spirit uniting to Christ all His members: with the Lord, that of
faith and of baptism. Here each individual has the same faith, the
same baptism: it is the outward profession, true and real perhaps,
but a profession, in reference to Him who has rights over those
that call themselves by His name. With regard to the third
character of unity, it relates to claims that extend to all things,
although to the believer it is a closer bond, because He who has a
right over all things dwells in believers.*

{*To recapitulate, there is, first, one body and one Spirit, one
hope of our calling; second, one Lord, with whom are connected one
faith and one baptism; third, one God and Father of all, who is
above all things, everywhere, and in all Christians. Moreover,
while insisting upon these three great relationships in which all
Christians are placed, as being in their nature the foundations of
unity, and the motives of its maintenance, these relationships
extend successively in breadth. The direct relationship applies
properly to the same persons; but the character of Him who is the
basis of the relationship enlarges the idea connected with it. With
regard to the Spirit, His presence unites the body is the bond
between all the members of the body: none but the members of the
body and they, as such are seen here. The Lord has wider claims. In
this relationship it is not the members of the body that are spoken
of; there is one faith and one baptism, one profession in the
world: there could not be two. But although the persons who are in
this outward relationship may stand also in the other relationships
and be members of the body, yet the relationship here is one of
individual profession; it is not a thing which cannot exist at all
except in reality (one is a member of Christ's body, or one is
not). God is the Father of these same members, as being His
children, but He who maintains this relationship is necessarily and
always above all things personally above all things, but divinely
everywhere.}

Realisation and manifestations of the unity of the one body

Observe here, that it is not only a unity of sentiment, of
desire, and of heart. That unity is pressed upon them; but it is in
order to maintain the realisation, and the manifestation here
below, of a unity that belongs to the existence and to the eternal
position of the assembly in Christ. There is one Spirit, but there
is one body. The union of hearts in the bond of peace, which the
apostle desires, is for the public maintenance of this unity; not
that there might be patience with one another when that has
disappeared, Christians contenting themselves with its absence. One
does not accept that which is contrary to the word, although in
certain cases those who are in it ought to be borne with. The
consideration of the community of position and of privilege,
enjoyed by all the children of God in the relationships of which we
have now been speaking, served to unite them with each other in the
sweet enjoyment of this most precious position, leading them also,
each one, to rejoice in love at the part which every other member
of the body had in this happiness.

Christ the head over all things; the necessity of redemption if
men were to be united to Christ; Satan overcome and led captive

But, on the other hand, the fact that Christ was exalted to be
in heaven the Head over all things, brought in a difference which
appertained to this supremacy of Christ a supremacy exercised with
divine sovereignty and wisdom. "Unto every one of us is given grace
[gift] according to the measure of the gift of Christ" (that is to
say, as Christ sees fit to bestow). With regard to our position of
joy and blessing in Christ, we are one. With regard to our service,
we have each an individual place according to His divine wisdom,
and according to His sovereign rights in the work. The foundation
of this title, whatever may be the divine power that is exercised
in it, is this: man was under the power of Satan miserable
condition, the fruit of his sin, a condition to which his self-will
had reduced him, but in which (according to the judgment of God who
had pronounced on him the sentence of death) he was a slave in body
and mind to the enemy who had the power of death with reservation
of the sovereign rights and sovereign grace of God (see Ephesians
2: 2). Now Christ has made Himself man, and began by going as man,
led by the Spirit, to meet Satan. He overcame him. As to His
personal power, He was able to drive him out everywhere, and to
deliver man. But man would not have God with him; nor was it
possible for men, in their sinful condition, to be united to Christ
without redemption. The Lord however, carrying on His perfect work
of love, suffered death, and overcame Satan in that his last
stronghold, which God's righteous judgment maintained in force
against sinful man a judgment which Christ therefore underwent,
accomplishing a redemption that was complete, final, and eternal in
its value; so that neither Satan, the prince of death and accuser
of the children of God on earth, nor even the judgment of God, had
anything more to say to the redeemed. The kingdom of Satan was
taken from him; the just judgment of God was undergone and
completely satisfied. All judgment is committed to the Son, and
power over all men, because He is the Son of man. These two results
are not yet manifested, although the Lord possesses all power in
heaven and in earth. The thing here spoken of is another result
which is accomplished meanwhile. The victory is complete. He has
led the adversary captive. In ascending to heaven He has placed
victorious man above all things, and has led captive all the power
that previously had dominion over man.

The Lord's power over Satan exhibited in His body, the
assembly

Now before manifesting in person the power He had gained as man
by binding Satan, before displaying it in the blessing of man on
earth, He exhibits it in the assembly, His body, by imparting, as
He had promised, to men delivered from the enemy's dominion gifts
which are the proof of that power.

The contents and connection of chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4

Ephesians 1 had laid open to us the thoughts of God; Ephesians 2
the fulfilment, in power, of His thoughts with regard to the
redeemed Jews or Gentiles, all dead in their sins to form them into
the assembly. Ephesians 3 is the especial development of the
mystery in that which concerned the Gentiles in Paul's
administration of it on earth. Here (Ephesians 4) the assembly is
presented in its unity as a body, and in the varied functions of
its members; that is to say, the positive effect of those counsels
in the assembly here below. But this is founded on the exaltation
of Christ, who, the conqueror of the enemy, has ascended to heaven
as man.

Gifts for men from the head of the body, the ascended man

Thus exalted, He has received gifts in man, that is, in His
human character (compare Acts 2: 33). It is thus "in man," that it
is expressed in Psalm 68, from whence the quotation is taken. Here,
having received these gifts as the Head of the body, Christ is the
channel of their communication to others. They are gifts for
men.

Three things here characterise Him a man ascended on high a man
who has led captive him who held man in captivity a man who has
received for men, delivered from that enemy, the gifts of God,
which bear witness to this exaltation of man in Christ, and serve
as a means for the deliverance of others. For this chapter does
not speak of the more direct signs of the Spirit's power, such as
tongues, miracles such as are usually termed miraculous gifts. But
what the Lord as Head confers on individuals, they are the gifts,
as His servants for forming the saints to be with Him, and for the
edification of the body the fruit of His care over them. Hence, as
already remarked, their continuance (till we all, one after
another, grow up to the head) is stated as to power, by the Spirit;
in 1 Corinthians 12 it is not.

The Lord's complete and glorious work; Satan's captives made
Christ's servants, the vessels of His power

But let us pause here for a moment, to contemplate the import of
that which we have been considering.

What a complete and glorious work is that which the Lord has
accomplished for us, and of which the communication of these gifts
is the precious testimony! When we were the slaves of Satan and
consequently of death, as well as the slaves of sin, we have seen
that He was pleased to undergo for the glory of God that which hung
over us. He went down into death of which Satan had the power. And
so complete was the victory of man in Him, so entire our
deliverance, that (exalted Himself as man to the right hand of
God's throne He who had been under death) He has rescued us from
the enemy's yoke, and uses the privilege which His position and His
glory give Him to make those who were captives before, the vessels
of His power for the deliverance of others also. He gives us the
right, as under His jurisdiction, of acting in His holy war, moved
by the same principles of love as Himself. Such is our deliverance
that we are the instruments of His power against the enemy His
fellow-labourers in love through His power. Hence the connection
between practical godliness, the complete subjugation of the flesh,
and the capacity to serve Christ as instruments in the hand of the
Holy Ghost, and the vessels of His power.

The significance of the Lord's ascension in connection with His
person and work

Now the Lord's ascension has immense significancy in connection
with His Person and work. He ascended indeed as man, but He first
descended as man even into the darkness of the grave and of death;
and from thence victorious over the power of the enemy who had the
power of death, and having blotted out the sins of His redeemed
ones, and accomplished the glory of God in obedience He takes His
place as man above the heavens in order that He may fill all
things; not only as being God, but according to the glory and the
power of a position in which He was placed by the accomplishment of
the work of redemption a work which led Him into the depths of the
power of the enemy, and placed Him on the throne of God a position
that He holds, not only by the title of Creator, which was already
His, but by that of Redeemer, which shelters from evil all that is
found within the sphere of the mighty efficacy of His work a sphere
filled with blessing, with grace, and with Himself. Glorious truth,
which belongs at the same time to the union of the divine and human
natures in the Person of Christ, and to the work of redemption
accomplished by suffering on the cross!

The Lord's descent and ascent

Love brought Him down from the throne of God, and, being found
as a man,* through the same grace, into the darkness of
death. Having died, bearing our sins, He has gone up again to that
throne as man, filling all things. He went below the creature into
death, and is gone above it.

{*The descent into the lower parts of the earth is viewed as
from His place as man on earth; not His coming down from heaven to
be a man. It is Christ who descended.}

The object of Christ's work; His body, His bride; gifts
communicated to gather together the members of His body

But while filling all things by virtue of His glorious Person,
and in connection with the work which He accomplished, He is also
in immediate relation with that which in the counsels of God is
closely united to Him who thus fills all things, with that which
has been especially the object of His work of redemption. It is His
body, His assembly, united to Him by the bond of the Holy Ghost to
complete this mystical man, to be the bride of this second Man, who
fills all in all a body which, as manifested here below, is set in
the midst of a creation that is not yet delivered, and in the
presence of enemies that are in the heavenly places, until Christ
shall exercise, on the part of God His Father, the power that has
been committed to Him as man. When Christ shall thus exercise His
power, He will take vengeance on those who have defiled His
creation by seducing man, who had been its head down here and the
image of Him who was to be its Head everywhere. He will also
deliver creation from its subjection to evil. Meanwhile, personally
exalted as the glorious man, and seated at God's right hand until
God shall make His enemies His footstool, He communicates the gifts
necessary for the gathering together of those who are to be the
companions of His glory, who are the members of His body, and who
shall be manifested with Him when His glory shines forth in the
midst of this world of darkness.

The power of the Spirit in the assembly; its spiritual power

The apostle shows us here an assembly already delivered, and
exercising the power of the Spirit; which on the one side delivers
souls, and on the other builds them up in Christ, that they may
grow up to the measure of their Head in spite of all the power of
Satan which still subsists.

But an important truth is connected with this fact. This
spiritual power is not exercised in a manner simply divine. It is
Christ ascended (He however who had previously descended into the
lower parts of the earth) who, as man, has received these gifts of
power. It is thus that Psalm 68 speaks as well as Acts 2: 33. The
latter passage speaks also of the gifts bestowed on His members. In
our chapter it is only in the latter way that they are
mentioned. He has given gifts unto men.

The purpose and character of the gifts of the Head of the body

I would also remark, that these gifts are not here presented as
gifts bestowed by the Holy Ghost come down to earth, and
distributing to every one according to His will: nor are those
gifts spoken of which are tokens of spiritual power suited to act
as signs upon those that are outside: but they are ministrations
for gathering together and for edification established by Christ as
Head of the body by means of gifts with which He endows persons as
His choice. Ascended on high, and having taken His place as man at
the right hand of God, and filling all things, whatever may be the
extent of His glory, Christ has first for His object to fulfil the
ways of God in love in gathering souls, and in particular towards
the saints and the assembly; to establish the manifestation of the
divine nature, and to communicate to the assembly the riches of
that grace which the ways of God display, and of which the divine
nature is the source. It is in the assembly that the nature of
God, the counsels of grace, and the efficacious work of Christ are
concentrated in their object; and these gifts are the means of
ministering, in the communication of these, in blessing to
man.

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers: apostles
and prophets laying, or rather being laid, as the foundations of
the heavenly building, and acting as coming directly from the Lord
in an extraordinary manner; the two other classes (the last being
sub-divided into two gifts, connected in their nature) belonging to
ordinary ministry in all ages. It is important to remark also, that
the apostle sees nothing existing before the exaltation of Christ
save man the child of wrath, the power of Satan, the power which
raised us up (dead in sins as we were) with Christ, and the
efficacy of the cross, which had reconciled us to God, and
abolished the distinction between Jew and Gentile in the assembly,
to unite them in one body before God the cross in which Christ
drank the cup and bore the curse, so that wrath has passed away for
the believer, and in which a God of love, a Saviour God, is fully
manifested.

The New Testament apostles and prophets exclusive of the twelve
apostles

So the existence of the apostles dates here only from the gifts
that followed the exaltation of Jesus. The twelve as sent out by
Jesus on earth have no place in the instruction of this epistle,
which treats of the body of Christ, of the unity and the members of
this body; and the body could not exist before the Head existed and
had taken His place as such. Thus also we have seen that, when the
apostle speaks of the apostles and prophets, the latter are to him
those exclusively of the New Testament, and those who have been
made such by Christ after His ascension. It is the new heavenly man
who, being the exalted Head in heaven, forms His body on the
earth. He does it for heaven, putting the individuals who compose
it spiritually and intelligently in connection with the Head by the
power of the Holy Ghost acting in this body on the earth; the
gifts, of which the apostle here speaks, being the channels by
which His graces are communicated according to the bonds which the
Holy Ghost forms with the Head.

The effect of the gifts as channels to the body

The proper and immediate effect is the perfecting of individuals
according to the grace that dwells in the Head. The shape which
this divine action takes, further, is the work of the ministry, and
the formation of the body of Christ, until all the members are
grown up into the measure of the stature of Christ their
Head. Christ has been revealed in all His fulness: it is according
to this revelation that the members of the body are to be formed in
the likeness of Christ, known as filling all things, and as the
Head of His body, the revelation of the perfect love of God, of the
excellency of man before Him according to His counsels, of man the
vessel of all His grace, all His power, and all His gifts. Thus the
assembly, and each one of the members of Christ, should be filled
with the thoughts and the riches of a well-known Christ, instead of
being tossed to and fro by all sort of doctrines brought forward by
the enemy to deceive souls.

Love and truth; Christ the perfect expression of them

The Christian was to grow up according to all that was revealed
in Christ, and to be ever increasing in likeness to his Head; using
love and truth for his own soul the two things of which Christ is
the perfect expression. Truth displays the real relation of all
things with each other in connection with the centre of all things,
which is God revealed now in Christ. Love is that which God is in
the midst of all this. Now Christ, as the light, put everything
precisely in its place man, Satan, sin, righteousness, holiness,
all things, and that in every detail, and in connection with God.
And Christ was love, the expression of the love of God in the midst
of all this. And this is our pattern; and our pattern as having
overcome, and, as having ascended into heaven, our Head, to which
we are united as the members of His body.

The members of the body channels of Christ's grace to each
member that all may be nourished and grow

There flows from this Head, by means of its members, the grace
needed to accomplish the work of assimilation to Himself. His body,
compacted together, increases by the working of His grace in each
member, and edifies itself in love.* This is the position of the
assembly according to God, until all the members of the body attain
to the stature of Christ. The manifestation alas! of this unity is
marred; but the grace, and the operation of the grace of its Head
to nourish and cause its members to grow, is never impaired, any
more than the love in the Lord's heart from which this grace
springs. We do not glorify Him, we have not the joy of being
ministers of joy to each other as we might be; but the Head does
not cease to work for the good of His body. The wolf indeed comes
and scatters the sheep, but he cannot pluck them out of the
Shepherd's hands. His faithfulness is glorified in our
unfaithfulness without excusing it.

{*Verse 11 gives special and permanent gifts; verse 16, what
every joint supplies in its place. Both have their place in the
forming and growth of the body.}

The union of Christ and the assembly in its double character

With this precious object of the ministration of grace (namely,
for the growth of each member individually unto the measure of the
stature of the Head Himself), with the ministration of each member
in its place to the edifying itself in love, ends this development
of the counsels of God in the union of Christ and the assembly, in
its double character of the body of Christ in heaven, and the
habitation of the Holy Ghost on earth truths which cannot be
separated, but each of which has its distinctive importance, and
which reconcile the certain immutable operations of grace in the
Head with the failures of the assembly responsible on the
earth.

Exhortations to a suited walk; putting off the old man, putting
on Christ

Exhortations to a walk befitting such a position follow, in
order that the glory of God in us and by us, and His grace towards
us, may be identified in our full blessing. We will notice the
great principles of these exhortations.

The first is the contrast* between the ignorance of a heart that
is blind, and a stranger to the life of God, and consequently
walking in the vanity of its own understanding, that is, according
to the desires of a heart given up to the impulses of the flesh
without God the contrast, I say, between this state, and that of
having learnt Christ, as the truth is in Jesus (which is the
expression of the life of God in man, God Himself manifested in the
flesh), the having put off this old man, which is corrupt itself
according to its deceitful lusts, and put on this new man,
Christ. It is not an amelioration of the old man; it is a putting
it off, and a putting on of Christ.

{*I have already noticed, that contrast of the new state and
the old characterises the Ephesians more than Colossians, where we
find more development of life.}

Even here the apostle does not lose sight of the oneness of the
body; we are to speak the truth, because we are members one of
another. "Truth," the expression of simplicity and integrity of
heart, is in connection with "the truth as it is in Jesus," whose
life is transparent as the light, as falsehood is in connection
with deceitful lusts.

New creation; Adam's fall and its result

Moreover, the old man is without God, alienated from the life of
God. The new man is created, it is a new creation, and a creation*
after the model of that which is the character of God righteousness
and holiness of truth. The first Adam was not in that manner
created after the image of God. By the fall the knowledge of good
and evil entered into man. He can no longer be innocent. When
innocent, he was ignorant of evil in itself. Now, fallen, he is a
stranger to the life of God in his ignorance: but the knowledge of
good and evil which he has acquired, the moral distinction between
good and evil in itself, is a divine principle. "The man," said
God, "is become as one of us, to know good and evil." But in order
to possess this knowledge, and subsist in what is good before God,
there must be divine energy, divine life.

{*In Colossians we have "renewed in knowledge after the image of
him that created us."}

God as the centre of all true relationship and moral
obligation

Everything has its true nature, its true character, in the eyes
of God. That is the truth. It is not that He is the truth. The
truth is the right and perfect expression of that which a thing is
(and, in an absolute way, of that which all things are), and of the
relations in which it stands to other things, or in which all
things stand towards each other. Thus God could not be the
truth. He is not the expression of some other thing. Everything
relates to Him. He is the centre of all true relationship, and of
all moral obligation. Neither is God the measure of all things,
for He is above all things; and nothing else can be so above them,
or He would not be so.* It is God become man; it is Christ, who is
the truth, and the measure of all things. But all things have their
true character in the eyes of God: and He judges righteously of
all, whether morally or in power. He acts according to that
judgment. He is just. He also knows evil perfectly, being Himself
goodness, that it may be perfectly an abomination to Him, that He
may repel it by His own nature. He is holy. Now the new man,
created after the divine nature, is so in righteousness and
holiness of truth. What a privilege! What a blessing! It is, as
another apostle has said, to be "partakers of the divine nature."
Adam had nothing of this.

{*There is a sense in which God is, morally, the measure of
other beings a consideration that brings out the immense privilege
of the child of God. It is the effect of grace, in that, being born
of Him and partaking of His nature, the child of God is called to
be the imitator of God, to be perfect as His Father is perfect. He
who loves is born of God, and knows God, for God is love. He makes
us partakers of His holiness, consequently we are called to be
imitators of God, as His dear children. This shows the immense
privileges of grace. It is the love of God in the midst of evil,
and which, superior to all evil, walks in holiness, and rejoices
also together, in a divine way, in the unity of the same joys and
the same sentiments. Therefore Christ says (John 17), "as we are,"
and "in us."}

Adam's responsibility for obedience, not for knowledge

Adam was perfect as an innocent man. The breath of life in his
nostrils was breathed into him by God, and he was responsible for
obedience to God in a thing wherein neither good nor evil was to be
known, but simply a commandment. The trial was that of obedience
only, not the knowledge of good or evil in itself. At present, in
Christ, the portion of the believer is a participation in the
divine nature itself, in a being who knows good and evil, and who
vitally participates in the sovereign good, morally in the nature
of God Himself, although always thereby dependent on Him. It is our
evil nature which is not so, or at least which refuses to be
dependent on Him.

Partakers of the divine nature and indwelt by the Holy Spirit
to be imitators of God

Now there is a prince of this world, a stranger to God; and,
besides participation in the divine nature, there is the Spirit
Himself who has been given to us. These solemn truths enter also as
principles into these exhortations. "Give no place to the devil,"
on the one hand give him no room to come in and act on the flesh;
and, on the other hand, "grieve not the Holy Spirit" who dwells in
you. The redemption of the creature has not yet taken place, but ye
have been sealed unto that day: respect and cherish this mighty and
holy guest who graciously dwells in you. Let all bitterness and
malice therefore cease even in word, and let meekness and kindness
reign in you according to the pattern you have in the ways of God
in Christ towards you. Be imitators of God: beautiful and
magnificent privilege! but which flows naturally from the truth
that we are made partakers of His nature, and that His Spirit
dwells in us.

The Christian pattern of life founded on new creation;
subjectively putting off the old and putting on the new

These are the two great subjective principles of the Christian
the having put off the old man and put on the new, and the Holy
Ghost's dwelling in him. Nor can anything be more blessed than the
pattern of life here given to the Christian, founded on our being a
new creation. It is perfect subjectively and objectively. First,
subjectively, the truth in Jesus is the having put off the old man
and put on the new, which has God for its pattern. It is created
after God in the perfection of His moral character. But this is not
all. The Holy Spirit of God by which we are sealed to the day of
redemption dwells in us: we are not to grieve Him. These are the
two elements of our state, the new man created after God, and the
presence of the Holy Spirit of God; and He is emphatically here
called the Spirit of God, as in connection with God's
character.

Objectively, God the pattern of love and light

And next objectively: created after God, and God dwelling in us,
God is the pattern of our walk, and thus in respect of the two
words which alone give God's essence love and light. We are to walk
in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us a sacrifice to
God. "For us" was divine love; "to God" is perfection of object and
motive. Law takes up the love of self as the measure of love to
others. Christ gives up self wholly and for us, but to God. Our
worthlessness enhances the love but, on the other hand, an
affection and a motive have their worth from the object (and with
Christ that was God Himself), self wholly given up. For, so to
speak, we may love up and love down. When we look upward in our
affections, the nobler the object the nobler the affection; when it
is downwards, the more unworthy the object, the more pure and
absolute the love. Christ was perfect in both, and absolutely
so. He gave Himself for us, and to God. Afterwards we are light in
the Lord. We cannot say we are love, for love is sovereign goodness
in God; we walk in it, like Christ. But we are light in the
Lord. This is the second essential name of God and as partakers of
the divine nature we are light in the Lord. Here again Christ is
the pattern. "Christ shall give thee light." We are called on,
then, as His dear children to imitate God.

Life perfectly and fully presented to us in Christ

This life, in which we participate and of which we live as
partakers of the divine nature, has been objectively presented to
us in Christ in all its perfection and in all its fulness; in man,
and in man now brought to perfection on high, according to the
counsels of God respecting Him. It is Christ, this eternal life,
who was with the Father and has been manifested unto us He who,
having then first descended, has ascended now into heaven to carry
humanity thither, and display it in the glory the glory of God
according to His eternal counsels. We have seen this life here in
its earthly development: God manifest in flesh; man, perfectly
heavenly, and obedient in all things to His Father, moved, in His
conduct to others, by the motives that characterise God Himself in
grace. Hereafter He will be manifested in judgment; and already,
here below, He has gone through all the experiences of a man,
understanding thus how grace adapts itself to our wants, and
displaying it now, according to that knowledge, even as hereafter
He will exercise judgment with a knowledge of man, not only divine,
but which, having gone through this world in holiness, will leave
the hearts of men without excuse and without escape.

The image of God

But it is the image of God in Him, of which we are now
speaking. It is in Him that the nature which we have to imitate is
presented to us, and presented in man as it ought to be developed
in us here below, in the circumstances through which we are
passing. We see in Him the manifestation of God, and that in
contrast with the old man. There we see "the truth as it is in
Jesus," save that in us it involves the putting off of the old man
and putting on the new, answering to Christ's death and
resurrection (compare particularly as to His death, 1 Peter 3: 18;
1 Peter 4: 1). Thus, in order to attract and to lead on our hearts,
to give us the model on which they are to be formed, the aim to
which they should tend, God has given us an object in which He
manifests Himself, and which is the object of all His own
delight.

God's object in the new man and that of the new man himself

The reproduction of God in man is the object that God proposed
to Himself in the new man; and that the new man proposes to
himself, as he is himself the reproduction of the nature and the
character of God. There are two principles for the Christian's
path, according to the light in which he views himself. Running his
race as man towards the object of his heavenly calling, in which he
follows after Christ ascended on high: he is running the heavenward
race; the excellency of Christ to be won there, his motive that is
not the Ephesian aspect. In the Ephesians he is sitting in heavenly
places in Christ, and he has to come out as from heaven, as Christ
really did, and manifest God's character upon earth, of which, as
we have seen, Christ is the pattern. We are called, as in the
position of dear children, to show our Father's ways.

We are not created anew according to that which the first Adam
was, but according to that which God is: Christ is its
manifestation. And He is the second Man, the last Adam.*

{*It is useful to note here the difference of Romans 12: 1, 2,
and this epistle. The Romans, we have seen, contemplates a living
man on earth; hence he is to give his body up as a living sacrifice
alive in Christ, he is to yield his members up wholly to God. Here
the saints are seen as sitting in heavenly places already, and they
are to come out in testimony of God's character before men, walking
as Christ did in love, and light.}